The second Soundwave 2014 lineup was announced last Friday, adding Mastodon, A Day To Remember, Panic! At The Disco and 35 more bands to next year’s bill.
You can bet that Soundwave boss AJ Maddah paid a very pretty penny to secure such big name bands if new comments about the cost of this year’s edition of the annual hard and heavy festival are anything to go by.
The cost of running Soundwave 2013’s five dates and massive 10th Anniversary lineup was well over $50 million, according to a series of tweets from Maddah to an inquiring fan, as FasterLouder reports.
Asked about the budget, Maddah recounts that ‘off the top of his head’ that the finances for artists was around half of the budget, approximately $26 million as well as huge numbers for additional production and touring costs.
@RowbothamJustin off the top of my head artist budget was $26M, production was around $7M, sites around $10M, travel $4.6M.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 9, 2013
The $26 figure is perhaps no surprise considering this year’s enormous lineup, at least a proportion of those millions would have gone direct to headliners Metallica, as well as big budgets for the return of Blink-182, Linkin Park, The Offspring, Garbage, Paramore, and ‘Big Four’s Anthrax and Slayer – just to name a fraction of the huge 2013 bill.
“Then you have marketing, office costs, wages, insurance, APRA, etc on top of that,” wrote the Soundwave honcho in a follow-up tweet. “And even then I forgot trucking and freight with 62 trucks and 100 drivers on the road! Kching another $1.6M,” read another post.
With so many millions spinning through the Soundwave machine, “most people would rather assume it’s all profit driven. Making tons of money, overpriced ticket, etc.” notes Maddah. But the promoter notes most of that money goes back into the festival. “I paid myself $40K last year. Everything else went back into the business,” he adds. “The good thing about working 120 hours a week is that you don’t have enough time or energy left to spend money!”
Crunching the numbers with the budget of $50 million for Soundwave 2013 and based on the attendance figures available, with Sydney reaching crowds of 75,000, Adelaide 40,000 and Melbourne 60,000, at approximately $198 per ticket, it would seem that this year’s edition broke even – or more likely made a small profit.
As for next year’s edition, which Maddah has previously conceded wouldn’t be as big as this past February’s blockbuster lineup of 70+ bands, the cost likewise, has deflated somewhat.
The promoter revealed that production budget for Soundwave 2014, featuring headliners Green Day and Avenged Sevenfold, were “not a great deal different. Artist & production budgets are prob about 15 to 20% less;” meaning next February’s five-date event will likely run at around $40-42 million – still no small figure by any measure.
Tickets for Soundwave 2014 run at $184.65 a pop (plus booking fee), which breaks down to an average of 40,000 ticket sales per five dates to break even – of course, that doesn’t account for profits from the bar and sponsorship, but it starts to paint the costly picture of running one of Australia’s biggest events – this on top of Maddah’s other festival ventures as promoter for the Vans Warped Tour, Big Day Out, and the replacement Harvest tours.
As for the progress of Soundwave 2014’s ticket sales, Maddah tweets that the opening date at Brisbane’s RNA Showgrounds is likely to be the first to put up sold out signs, while the Sydney leg has been “selling rapidly since 2nd announcement.” Meanwhile, other fans are anticipating the series of high-profile Soundwave sideshows, with Maddah writing that Melbourne fans will get the lion’s share of Soundwaves while most of the 80 plus strong lineup will feature on Sidewaves shows.
@CacklingMelLee about 70% of bands will do a side show. Of those most will be in Melb.
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 9, 2013
If you’re still not satisfied with the additions to the Soundwave 2014 lineup, then that may not be all. In the lead-up to the second lineup announcement, Maddah posted the following on his twitter, hinting that there would be a third round of bands to the 2014 edition of the event, including more international artists.
Just approved art for announcement. Looks like we will have a few internationals left over for the 3rd announcement! #SW14
— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 7, 2013
Soundwave 2014 Lineup
A Day To Remember
Mastodon
HIM
Pennywise
Glassjaw
Panic! At The Disco
Eagles Of Death Metal
The Dillinger Escape Plan
Less Than Jake
Mayday Parade
Sevendust
Crosses
Suicide Silence
The Porkers
Gojira
Black Veil Brides
Zebrahead
Satyricon
Dream On Dreamer
Mutemath
Desparecidos
Stiff Little Fingers
Thy Art Is Murder
Graveyard
Dir En Grey
Deez Nuts
In Hearts Wake
Breathe Carolina
Defiler
I Call Fives
Hacktivist
Devil You Know
Soil
The Boss Hoss
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats
Nostalghia
Upon A Burning Body
Joining the already announced lineup of:
Green Day
Avenged Sevenfold
Stone Temple Pilots (with Chester Bennington)
Megadeth
Alice In Chains
Rob Zombie
Megadeth
Placebo
AFI
KoRn
Alterbridge
Trivium
Down
DevilDriver
Newsted
Biffy Clyro
Rocket From The Crypt
Asking Alexandria
Clutch
Alkaline Trio
Baroness
Five Finger Death Punch
August Burns Red
Testament
Living Color
Letlive
Motionless In White
Gwar
Black Dahlia Murder
MushroomHead
Finch
Pulled Apart By Horses
Ill Nino
Nancy Vandal
Bowling For Soup
Trash Talk
Skindred
Volbeat
Amon Amarth
Terror
Whitechapel
TesseracT
The Story So Far
Hardcore Superstar
10 Years
Walking Papers
Our Last Night
Coliseum
Your Demise
Heaven’s Basement
Real Friends
+ more to be announced.
Soundwave 2014 Dates & Tickets
Tickets on sale Thrusday 9th September at 9am
via: soundwavefestival.com, oztix.com.au & other outlets
Saturday 22nd February – Brisbane, RNA Showgrounds
Sunday 23rd February – Sydney, Olympic Park
Friday 28th February – Melbourne, Flemington Racecourse
Saturday 1st March – Adelaide, Bonython Park
Monday 3rd March – Perth, Claremont Showgrounds
